New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS): The ninth $25,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature will be awarded at the finale of the four-day Nepal Literature Festival in Pokhra on December 16, in keeping with the tradition of announcing the winner at a different South Asian country every year. It was announced here on Tuesday.

The 5-member international jury, which is evaluating the entries, will arrive at a longlist of 12-15 books by end of September. A shortlist of 5-6 books will be announced early November at the London School of Economics in London.

The DSC Prize 2018 was presented at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet in India, the 2016 winner at the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka, and the 2017 award at the Dhaka Lit Fest in Bangladesh.

The award is open to fiction writers of any ethnicity or nationality as long as the writing is about South Asia and its people.

"By showcasing and rewarding the best writing about the region, the prize has been successful in its vision to raise the awareness of South Asian literature and culture around the world, and bring the best South Asian writing to world-wide audience. It encourages writing in regional languages and translations, and whenever a translated entry has won the award, the prize money has been equally shared between the author and the translator," the organisers of the award said.

Administered by the South Asian Literature Prize & Events Trust, the DSC Prize prides itself on a thorough and transparent judging process and is modelled on global best practices.

Past winners of the prize have been H.M. Naqvi from Pakistan, Shehan Karunatilaka (Sri Lanka), Jeet Thayil and Cyrus Mistry (India), American author of Indian origin Jhumpa Lahiri, Anuradha Roy (India), Anuk Arudpragasam (Sri Lanka) and Jayant Kaikini along with translator Tejaswini Niranjana (India) who won the prize last year.